Files
TheLadder/tools/story-to-pack/probe/wharton/claude/events.json
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JesseMarkowitzandClaude Opus 5 e5617b86ba Replace clustering with a catalogue, and hand-write the references to judge it against
The pipeline's embed-and-cluster step is dead, and this commit holds both the
evidence for that and the step proposed to replace it.

Predicaments. Scenes are re-described as "what the person is up against", with
no names, jobs or places, then embedded and clustered (redescribe.py,
topic_words.py, topic_share.py). The pilot chose qwen3:14b over 3b by reading
both side by side. Two defects the pilot exposed are fixed: split.py missed
titles in quotes and a contents subtitle after a dash, so three stories had been
merged into their neighbours, and strip_names.py read New York place names as
people. The corrected corpus is probe/v2 (97 stories, 839 scenes);
carry_summaries.py reuses the 829 unchanged v1 summaries. Topic share fell from
20% to 13% at k=60, short of the pre-registered 10%.

Hand references. Three corpora were read scene by scene and written up by hand,
under the same prompt rules the local models get, as a baseline to judge them
against: O. Henry (probe/v2/claude, 839 scenes, 20 situations), Wharton's
Descent of Man (probe/wharton, 262 scenes, 16 groups) and Jacobs's The Lady of
the Barge (probe/jacobs, 157 scenes, 19 groups). Each has its own README and a
readable page. No inference was used for any of them.

Catalogue. probe/catalogue maps every hand group in the three references onto 36
situation entries, with an answer key per corpus and one recurrence rule applied
to all three. classify.py assigns a scene one entry or none, leave-one-corpus-
out; score.py checks it against the key, with a self-test on random labels.

Why clustering is out: hand-written predicaments, embedded and clustered exactly
as the model's were, agree with the hand grouping at ARI 0.05 — no better than
the 14B text's 0.07. Better rewriting cannot rescue it. Embeddings cannot even
shortlist: the hand label is the nearest entry 13% of the time and in the top 8
half the time.

The classification runs are not here. The dev and test runs are pre-registered
in probe/catalogue/README.md with the bar set beforehand, and are blocked on the
inference host, whose GPU has fallen off the PCIe bus three times. The 30-scene
partial output in out/ is not a result.

Review page. The situation review is now a browser page rather than JSON edited
by hand (review_page.py, review_page_logic.cjs with Node tests, format schema
v2). It has never been rendered in a real browser.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_014BygvsUXV9eU6oHkTCkKZ1
2026-09-20 17:19:42 -04:00

1722 lines
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JSON

{
"about": "One recurring event per group in groups.json, written by hand (Claude) as a comparison target. Descriptions are variants of one event (DESIGN.md: 'several descriptions, sharing one general option set'); each names the scenes it was drawn from. Options follow the DESIGN.md recipe: 1-3 fixed archetypes, 1-3 drawn from scenes in the group, and 'filled' only where the corpus gave no option. Effects give a path and a direction only. Magnitudes are the numeric search's job, and no number is chosen here. Role tokens ({spouse}, {rival} ...) are meant for code substitution, per the DESIGN.md finding that a model should not do entity substitution.",
"effect_notation": "dir '+' or '-' is an add of unknown size; 'set' is a flag; 'push' adds a line to notable. relationships.<role>.<stat> uses the labels in setting.json.",
"events": [
{
"id": "tainted_money",
"group": "tainted_money",
"stage": "inside",
"recurs": true,
"roles": [
"{patron}",
"{spouse}"
],
"descriptions": [
{
"text": "{patron} has read what you wrote and taken it exactly the wrong way, and is offering a great deal of money to go on taking it that way in public. All you have to do is say nothing.",
"from": [
12,
14
]
},
{
"text": "The advance would cover the household for a year. It is for more of the same thing you swore, six months ago, you would never do again.",
"from": [
27,
28
]
},
{
"text": "You have found out where the money comes from. It is the same money that has paid for everything you like about your life.",
"from": [
230,
232
]
}
],
"options": [
{
"id": "take_it",
"label": "Take it, and tell yourself it changes nothing.",
"source": "scene 14",
"result": "It changes nothing for a while. Then it changes what you are asked to do next.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "money",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "owed",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "flags.took_the_money",
"op": "set",
"value": true
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "take_it_once",
"label": "Take it this once, to pay for the thing you actually care about.",
"source": "scene 28",
"result": "You buy what you needed for the real work. The real work is put off by exactly as long as the other thing takes.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "money",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "owed",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "refuse",
"label": "Refuse, and say why.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "{patron} is not offended, only puzzled, and offers the same terms to somebody else by the end of the week.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.patron.obliged_to_you",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "money",
"dir": "-"
}
]
},
{
"id": "say_nothing",
"label": "Neither sign nor refuse. Let it lie on the desk.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "It is printed anyway. Silence, it turns out, was the only thing they needed from you.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "money",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "notable",
"op": "push",
"value": "Let it go to press without a word."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"id": "strings_attached",
"group": "strings_attached",
"stage": "outside",
"recurs": true,
"roles": [
"{patron}"
],
"descriptions": [
{
"text": "There is a place for you. It is also, you are told quite frankly, the kind of place people leave.",
"from": [
89
]
},
{
"text": "{patron} will back you, gladly and at once, once you have done one more thing first.",
"from": [
26
]
},
{
"text": "There is a way out of this, and you will not like what it costs. You are asked to hear it without looking at the person telling you.",
"from": [
256,
257
]
}
],
"options": [
{
"id": "accept_terms",
"label": "Accept the terms.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "You are out of the hole and into the arrangement, which is a different hole with better furniture.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "money",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "owed",
"dir": "+"
}
]
},
{
"id": "take_warning",
"label": "Take it anyway: you have been warned, and you need it.",
"source": "scene 89",
"result": "Being warned turns out to be worth less than you thought, and needing it exactly as much.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "money",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "flags.took_the_hard_place",
"op": "set",
"value": true
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "haggle",
"label": "Ask for the help without the condition.",
"source": "filled",
"result": "{patron} explains, kindly, that the condition was the help.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.patron.resents_you",
"dir": "+"
}
]
},
{
"id": "walk_away",
"label": "Do without.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "You manage. It is not the same as being all right.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "money",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "+"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"id": "old_attachment",
"group": "old_attachment",
"stage": "inside",
"recurs": true,
"roles": [
"{spouse}",
"{former}"
],
"descriptions": [
{
"text": "{former} has a right, written down by a court, to come into your house once a week. This is the week.",
"from": [
33,
34
]
},
{
"text": "Your {spouse} pours your coffee exactly the way {former} used to take it, and blushes when you say so.",
"from": [
39
]
},
{
"text": "You are engaged now, and you have called on {former} as you always did, as though nothing had changed. {former} does not seem to think so.",
"from": [
199,
204
]
},
{
"text": "You find yourself outside {former}'s door, with no appointment and no good reason, and you ring anyway.",
"from": [
168,
169
]
}
],
"options": [
{
"id": "be_civil",
"label": "Be civil. Offer a chair and a cigar.",
"source": "scene 54",
"result": "It is easier than you expected, which is its own kind of trouble.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.former.resents_you",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.confides_in_you",
"dir": "-"
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": -1
},
{
"id": "stay_out",
"label": "Be out of the house when it happens.",
"source": "scene 35",
"result": "You are out of the house, and run into a different piece of the past on the way.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "-"
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": 1
},
{
"id": "ask_spouse",
"label": "Ask your {spouse} what it was really like, before.",
"source": "scene 48",
"result": "You get tears instead of an answer, which is an answer.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.confides_in_you",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.resents_you",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": -4
},
{
"id": "laugh_and_pour",
"label": "Laugh, and take the third cup.",
"source": "scene 57",
"result": "Everyone is very pleasant. Nobody mentions it afterwards, and you find you have stopped minding.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "notable",
"op": "push",
"value": "Took tea with all three of them."
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": 2
}
]
},
{
"id": "what_they_hid",
"group": "what_they_hid",
"stage": "any",
"recurs": true,
"roles": [
"{spouse}"
],
"descriptions": [
{
"text": "Somebody who has no reason to lie mentions, in passing, a thing your {spouse} told you had not happened.",
"from": [
46
]
},
{
"text": "Your {spouse} has been kinder than usual all week. You have started to wonder what it is in aid of.",
"from": [
159
]
},
{
"text": "You learn that the person you are about to marry went, alone and by appointment, to ask someone else about you.",
"from": [
205,
206
]
},
{
"text": "It dawns on you, halfway through being thanked, that the whole thing was arranged, and that you were the one it was arranged for.",
"from": [
259,
260
]
}
],
"options": [
{
"id": "confront",
"label": "Ask straight out.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "You get the truth, or enough of it, and you cannot give it back.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.confides_in_you",
"dir": "-"
}
]
},
{
"id": "let_it_lie",
"label": "Say nothing. It is done now.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "It is done. It is also always in the room.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.confides_in_you",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "flags.knows_and_says_nothing",
"op": "set",
"value": true
}
]
},
{
"id": "find_out_quietly",
"label": "Find out for yourself, quietly, before you say anything.",
"source": "scene 47",
"result": "What you learn about the other side is all to their credit, which makes it worse.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": 1
},
{
"id": "pay_and_go",
"label": "Pay what it takes to be out of it, and go.",
"source": "scene 260",
"result": "It costs you money and a certain opinion of yourself. The money was the cheaper part.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "money",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
}
]
},
{
"id": "keep_their_secret",
"group": "keep_their_secret",
"stage": "outside",
"recurs": true,
"roles": [
"{employer}",
"{spouse}"
],
"descriptions": [
{
"text": "You are sent on an errand before the house is up, and asked to be back before the master of it is. On the way back, he is waiting.",
"from": [
105,
107
]
},
{
"text": "You hold the only proof of something that would comfort a grieving woman and ruin the man she has never met. You are asked to tell no one, not even her.",
"from": [
197
]
},
{
"text": "You could clear yourself in a sentence by showing what is in your pocket. The person it would expose is looking at you and very slightly shaking her head.",
"from": [
251,
252
]
}
],
"options": [
{
"id": "lie",
"label": "Lie for them, looking straight back.",
"source": "scene 107",
"result": "It comes out ready-made. You had not known you had it in you.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "relationships.employer.confides_in_you",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.resents_you",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "flags.lied_for_them",
"op": "set",
"value": true
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "refuse_to_say",
"label": "Say you do not show your private affairs to strangers.",
"source": "scene 253",
"result": "It is perfectly true and perfectly useless, and it is taken as a confession.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "relationships.employer.obliged_to_you",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": 1
},
{
"id": "give_it_up",
"label": "Tell what you know.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "You are thanked by the person who asked, and never again by the person you were covering for.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.employer.resents_you",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "+"
}
]
},
{
"id": "keep_it_forever",
"label": "Keep it, and never tell anyone you kept it.",
"source": "scene 198",
"result": "It is the most generous thing you will ever do, and nobody, including the person it was for, will ever know.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "notable",
"op": "push",
"value": "Burned it."
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": 1
}
]
},
{
"id": "exposed",
"group": "exposed",
"stage": "inside",
"recurs": true,
"roles": [
"{patron}",
"{spouse}"
],
"descriptions": [
{
"text": "The first review has come. Your {spouse} is delighted, and means to read it aloud, now, in front of {patron}.",
"from": [
70,
73
]
},
{
"text": "The speaker is circling closer and closer to a name, and every head in the room is turning towards you.",
"from": [
84,
85
]
},
{
"text": "The book is everywhere. People quote it at you. They quote the parts you meant as a joke.",
"from": [
17,
18
]
}
],
"options": [
{
"id": "brazen_it",
"label": "Sit still and look pleased.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "Nobody can tell anything from your face, which is exactly what they will say about you afterwards.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "+"
}
]
},
{
"id": "stop_it",
"label": "Stop it: take the paper out of their hands.",
"source": "filled",
"result": "It stops. So does the conversation, and several invitations.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.resents_you",
"dir": "+"
}
]
},
{
"id": "own_it",
"label": "Say, out loud, that it is yours and you meant it.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "For a moment it is very quiet. Then somebody asks you to dinner.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "flags.owned_it",
"op": "set",
"value": true
}
]
},
{
"id": "hide",
"label": "Leave, and let them talk.",
"source": "scene 17",
"result": "They talk. You are not there to hear it, which helps less than you hoped.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "-"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
}
]
},
{
"id": "civil_to_them",
"group": "civil_to_them",
"stage": "outside",
"recurs": true,
"roles": [
"{patron}",
"{former}",
"{employer}"
],
"descriptions": [
{
"text": "{patron} is laid up and asks you, as a favour to the firm, to handle a piece of business for the one man in town you would cross the street to avoid.",
"from": [
40,
41
]
},
{
"text": "The master of the house is home for two days. Everyone below stairs has gone quiet, and you have been told to keep out of his way.",
"from": [
96,
98
]
},
{
"text": "You are left alone over tea with {patron}, who wants to talk about the one subject you most need to keep off.",
"from": [
64
]
}
],
"options": [
{
"id": "do_it_well",
"label": "Do it, and do it better than they would.",
"source": "scene 41",
"result": "You come out of it the more composed of the two, which is a small thing to be proud of and you are proud of it anyway.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.patron.obliged_to_you",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "money",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "flatter",
"label": "Turn the talk to them, and keep it there.",
"source": "scene 64",
"result": "It works until you get the name of their last book wrong.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.patron.resents_you",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "keep_out_of_sight",
"label": "Keep out of the way until it passes.",
"source": "scene 96",
"result": "It passes. It will come back.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "decline",
"label": "Decline, and let them find someone else.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "They find someone else, and remember that they had to.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.patron.obliged_to_you",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"id": "plead_their_case",
"group": "plead_their_case",
"stage": "any",
"recurs": true,
"roles": [
"{ward}",
"{spouse}",
"{former}"
],
"descriptions": [
{
"text": "The person you love most asks you to go and talk someone round on their behalf. You are not at all sure they are in the right.",
"from": [
218,
219
]
},
{
"text": "{former} asks you, very politely, to remind your {spouse} of a right the court gave him. Your {spouse} will not thank you.",
"from": [
47
]
},
{
"text": "The match is made. You could warn the young man what he is getting. If you do, there may be no match.",
"from": [
141,
142
]
}
],
"options": [
{
"id": "plead_hard",
"label": "Go, and plead it with everything you have.",
"source": "scene 222",
"result": "You argue well. The other side tells you that is exactly why they cannot agree.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.ward.confides_in_you",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": 2
},
{
"id": "pass_it_on",
"label": "Pass it on exactly as it was given to you.",
"source": "scene 47",
"result": "You are the messenger, and treated as one.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.resents_you",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.former.confides_in_you",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "warn_them",
"label": "Tell the truth, even though it spoils your own hopes.",
"source": "scene 142",
"result": "You are told you never understood them. Things turn out rather well.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "notable",
"op": "push",
"value": "Told him what she was like."
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "refuse_errand",
"label": "Say it is not your place.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "It is not, and they do not ask again.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "relationships.ward.confides_in_you",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"id": "own_words_back",
"group": "own_words_back",
"stage": "inside",
"recurs": false,
"roles": [
"{spouse}"
],
"descriptions": [
{
"text": "Your {spouse} reminds you of the promise you made each other: either could go, freely, when it was over. It is over, apparently, for one of you.",
"from": [
160,
161
]
},
{
"text": "You kept her secret on your honour. Now, you are told, honour requires you to marry her within the hour.",
"from": [
253,
254
]
},
{
"text": "You urged compromise on someone younger. They answer that your own life is the best argument against it.",
"from": [
222
]
}
],
"options": [
{
"id": "keep_your_word",
"label": "Keep your word. Wish them luck.",
"source": "scene 162",
"result": "You do it perfectly. Afterwards, the house you are standing in does not feel like yours.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.confides_in_you",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "flags.kept_the_bargain",
"op": "set",
"value": true
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": 1
},
{
"id": "go_back_on_it",
"label": "Go back on it. You did not mean it to apply to you.",
"source": "scene 164",
"result": "You are allowed to. You are also told, gently, what you once said about people who did.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.resents_you",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "argue_the_terms",
"label": "Argue that the circumstances are different.",
"source": "scene 152",
"result": "They are, and you cannot say how without saying what has changed in you.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": -8
}
]
},
{
"id": "give_it_up",
"group": "give_it_up",
"stage": "any",
"recurs": true,
"roles": [
"{former}",
"{ward}"
],
"descriptions": [
{
"text": "There is a way to save the person who used you: say that you lied, and let your own name take it.",
"from": [
210
]
},
{
"text": "You could stop a younger person making the mistake you made. It would mean telling them what it was.",
"from": [
229,
236
]
},
{
"text": "You could get out of here tonight, if you let someone else pay for it.",
"from": [
258
]
}
],
"options": [
{
"id": "give_it",
"label": "Give it up for them.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "It costs you exactly what you thought. They may never know what it was.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "relationships.former.obliged_to_you",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "notable",
"op": "push",
"value": "Gave it up and said nothing."
}
]
},
{
"id": "tell_all",
"label": "Tell the whole story, and let them choose.",
"source": "scene 236",
"result": "You leave before they answer. It is the only part you could not bear.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.ward.confides_in_you",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "refuse_sacrifice",
"label": "Refuse to let them do it for you.",
"source": "scene 211",
"result": "You will take what is coming yourself. It turns out less is coming than you feared.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.former.confides_in_you",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "keep_it",
"label": "Keep what is yours.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "Nobody blames you. That is not the same as nobody noticing.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "money",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.former.resents_you",
"dir": "+"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"id": "keep_the_peace",
"group": "keep_the_peace",
"stage": "inside",
"recurs": true,
"roles": [
"{spouse}",
"{ward}"
],
"descriptions": [
{
"text": "Your {spouse} wants something from you again. The fastest way to an evening's quiet is to give it.",
"from": [
21
]
},
{
"text": "The household has grown around the new arrival until there is only one small room of it left for you.",
"from": [
130,
131
]
},
{
"text": "Your {spouse} offers, very sweetly, to do whatever you like about it. You realise they would say the same to anyone.",
"from": [
50,
51
],
"outside_group": {
"50": -1
}
}
],
"options": [
{
"id": "give_way",
"label": "Give way. It is easier.",
"source": "scene 21",
"result": "It is easier. You notice, later, that you have stopped keeping count.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.confides_in_you",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "money",
"dir": "-"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "dig_in_small",
"label": "Hold out on something small.",
"source": "scene 128",
"result": "You win the small thing, and discover it was the only one left to win.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.resents_you",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": -2
},
{
"id": "dine_out",
"label": "Dine at the club.",
"source": "scene 135",
"result": "The club is very comfortable. You are there most nights now.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "money",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.confides_in_you",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": -1
},
{
"id": "have_it_out",
"label": "Say what you actually want.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "It is not a pleasant evening. It is the first honest one in a long time.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.resents_you",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.confides_in_you",
"dir": "+"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"id": "unseen_at_home",
"group": "unseen_at_home",
"stage": "inside",
"recurs": true,
"roles": [
"{spouse}",
"{confidant}"
],
"descriptions": [
{
"text": "Your {spouse} admires everything you do and understands none of it, and has just told the whole room so.",
"from": [
71,
72
]
},
{
"text": "For twenty years there has been a room upstairs papered for someone who never came. You had not noticed that anyone was waiting.",
"from": [
122,
123
],
"outside_group": {
"122": -1
}
},
{
"text": "The only person you can talk to about what you care about lives two miles off, and calls in the afternoons when your {spouse} is away.",
"from": [
97
]
}
],
"options": [
{
"id": "make_amends",
"label": "Give them the thing they have wanted, however foolish.",
"source": "scene 125",
"result": "They are happy for the first time in years, and you are the one who has to get used to it.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.confides_in_you",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "money",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "flags.made_amends",
"op": "set",
"value": true
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": -1
},
{
"id": "look_elsewhere",
"label": "Find your company elsewhere.",
"source": "scene 97",
"result": "It is a great comfort. It is also, you are beginning to notice, being noticed.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "relationships.confidant.confides_in_you",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.spouse.resents_you",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "provoke",
"label": "Do something they will have to object to.",
"source": "scene 72",
"result": "They are delighted with it.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "live_with_it",
"label": "Live with it. Most people do.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "Most people do.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"id": "new_and_warned",
"group": "new_and_warned",
"stage": "outside",
"recurs": true,
"roles": [
"{employer}",
"{confidant}"
],
"descriptions": [
{
"text": "There is a door on your corridor that must be kept locked, and nobody will tell you why, and the cook has gone white at the question.",
"from": [
91,
95
]
},
{
"text": "You mention where you are working, and an old acquaintance pulls a long face: four have left it in six months.",
"from": [
101
]
},
{
"text": "A pleasant stranger who speaks your language has offered to show you how things are done here. He knows everyone.",
"from": [
241,
242
]
},
{
"text": "Everyone who likes you has warned you against this marriage, and you have gone ahead, and it is going well.",
"from": [
31,
32
]
}
],
"options": [
{
"id": "ask_straight",
"label": "Ask straight out what is going on.",
"source": "scene 94",
"result": "You are told you are imagining it, in a tone that says you are not.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.employer.resents_you",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": -1
},
{
"id": "watch_quietly",
"label": "Say nothing, and keep your eyes open.",
"source": "scene 108",
"result": "You learn more that way, and sleep less.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "flags.watching",
"op": "set",
"value": true
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": 7
},
{
"id": "trust_the_guide",
"label": "Accept the help, gratefully.",
"source": "scene 242",
"result": "It is a wonderful afternoon. You pay for most of it, in the coin he chooses.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "money",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "give_notice",
"label": "Leave while you still can.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "You leave. You never find out, and you think about it often.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "money",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "relationships.employer.confides_in_you",
"dir": "-"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"id": "the_rival",
"group": "the_rival",
"stage": "any",
"recurs": true,
"roles": [
"{rival}",
"{confidant}"
],
"descriptions": [
{
"text": "You have found, in an old file, a paper that would finish {rival}. Nobody else knows it exists.",
"from": [
188,
189,
190
]
},
{
"text": "Your {spouse} has said, quite calmly, that {rival} interests them.",
"from": [
153
]
},
{
"text": "Across the room {rival} is enjoying a coffee and a brandy as though none of this had touched him at all.",
"from": [
37
]
}
],
"options": [
{
"id": "use_it",
"label": "Use it.",
"source": "scene 191",
"result": "It lands exactly where you aimed. The person you did it for defends {rival} better than you could have imagined.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "relationships.rival.resents_you",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.confidant.confides_in_you",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "flags.struck_at_the_rival",
"op": "set",
"value": true
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": 1
},
{
"id": "hand_it_over",
"label": "Hand it over, and let them judge.",
"source": "scene 193",
"result": "You were honest. It does not feel like honesty from the inside.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.confidant.confides_in_you",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": false,
"offset_from_nearest_member": 3
},
{
"id": "sneer",
"label": "Say what you think of them, to the one who loves them.",
"source": "scene 186",
"result": "That is the end of that.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "relationships.confidant.confides_in_you",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "relationships.confidant.resents_you",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "let_it_go",
"label": "Put it away.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "It stays put away. You know where.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"id": "owning_up",
"group": "owning_up",
"stage": "any",
"recurs": false,
"roles": [
"{former}",
"{ward}"
],
"descriptions": [
{
"text": "It has happened to you now, the thing you once did to {former}, and you find you have walked to {former}'s door.",
"from": [
171,
172
]
},
{
"text": "Someone younger is about to do exactly what you did. The only thing that would stop them is the truth about you.",
"from": [
227,
228
]
},
{
"text": "Somebody you trained to hide their feelings has just told you, plainly, what you cost them.",
"from": [
209
]
}
],
"options": [
{
"id": "ask_forgiveness",
"label": "Say you understand now, and ask them to forgive you.",
"source": "scene 173",
"result": "They say there is nothing to forgive, which is kinder than the truth and less use.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.former.resents_you",
"dir": "-"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "admit_it",
"label": "Admit it, all of it.",
"source": "scene 227",
"result": "It is easier than you expected to say and harder than you expected to have said.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.candour",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "relationships.ward.confides_in_you",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "keep_face",
"label": "Say something graceful and go.",
"source": "archetype",
"result": "Nobody could have done it better. Nothing has changed.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"id": "waiting_on_them",
"group": "waiting_on_them",
"stage": "any",
"recurs": true,
"roles": [
"{ward}"
],
"descriptions": [
{
"text": "The offer has been made. The answer has been deferred for a month, and there is nothing whatever you can do about it.",
"from": [
139,
140
]
},
{
"text": "You can tell from the way they walk up the street that they are coming home to tell you something.",
"from": [
212
]
},
{
"text": "The house has gone very quiet. You have the feeling that tonight something is going to happen.",
"from": [
116
]
}
],
"options": [
{
"id": "hurry_it",
"label": "Try to hurry it along.",
"source": "scene 140",
"result": "Your ruses are seen through and the date does not move.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "relationships.ward.resents_you",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "-"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "pretend_calm",
"label": "Pretend not to notice anything at all.",
"source": "scene 139",
"result": "You are very good at it. It is exhausting.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "skills.tact",
"dir": "+"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
},
{
"id": "wait_up",
"label": "Stay up, and be ready.",
"source": "scene 116",
"result": "Nothing happens tonight. You are no less tired for that.",
"effects": [
{
"path": "relationships.ward.confides_in_you",
"dir": "+"
},
{
"path": "standing",
"dir": "-"
}
],
"source_in_group": true
}
]
}
],
"provenance_note": "An option whose source scene is outside its group carries source_in_group=false and offset_from_nearest_member: the signed scene distance to the nearest group member in the same story (+1 = the scene right after). These are the scenes where a member's predicament is resolved: the option is what that character did next."
}